When could a coronavirus vaccine be ready in the UK?
Scientists all over the world are rushing to produce a workable vaccine to protect against coronavirus.
Various human trials started earlier this year, however there’s been no official word as to when a vaccine will be ready for mass consumption.
With lockdown measures being rolled back nationwide amid the threat of smaller local lockdowns, here’s what we know about when a vaccine could be ready…
When could a coronavirus vaccine be ready?
President of the Federation of American Scientists, Dr Ali Nouri, previously said that normal life likely won’t resume until 2021, which is at least how long he said a vaccine will take to be developed.
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He said there’s no ‘magic date’ for when we’ll be able to interact with each other like we did before the pandemic, and that ‘things are going to be different’ until a there’s a treatment for Covid-19, which is likely to take at least a year, meaning ‘normal life won’t resume until 2021′.
There’s now hope that a vaccine which could ‘give long term protection’ could be synthesized – but not before winter, when it’s feared there may be a second wave of infections.
Professor Sarah Gilbert, a lead scientist helping to develop Oxford University’s potential vaccine, says studies have been promising and that the injection could last for at least several years.
She told MPs that, if approved, their vaccine could provide better protection than any natural immunity people might develop after having recovered from Covid-19.
At the time of writing, roughly 8,000 people are taking part in the human trials for this Oxford vaccine.
Prof Gilbert said: ‘Vaccines have a different way of engaging with the immune system, and we follow people in our studies using the same type of technology to make the vaccines for several years, and we still see strong immune responses.
‘It’s something we have to test and follow over time – we can’t know until we actually have the data – but we’re optimistic based on earlier studies that we will see a good duration of immunity, for several years at least, and probably better than naturally-acquired immunity.’
However regius professor of medicine at Oxford University Sir John Bell warned that we should prepare for the vaccine to not be ready before the winter months.
He cautioned: ‘This whole epidemic has relied too heavily on assumptions that have turned out not to be true. So my strong advice is to be prepared for the worst.’
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